New Structure Announced for Revised
GRE® General Test
When applicants take the revised GRE General Test in 2007, they'll take a longer test that has been revised to better focus on skills that are necessary for success in graduate school.
The new test will last about 4 hours and 10 minutes and contain seven sections. The Verbal Reasoning measure will feature two 40-minute sections instead of the single 30-minute section in the current General Test. The Quantitative Reasoning measure will feature two 40-minute sections instead of the single 45-minute section in the current test. The Analytical Writing measure will feature 30-minute Issue and Argument tasks instead of the 45-minute Issue and 30-minute Argument task in the current test. A seventh section will be either a pretest section or research section and will not count toward an individual's score.
"The test length for both the Verbal and Quantitative sections has increased because the sections are changing from computer-adaptive tests, where the questions presented to each examinee vary according to his or her performance, to linear tests, where all examinees testing at the same time receive the same questions." said Dawn Piacentino, Associate Director of GRE Client Relations in ETS's Higher Education Division. "Linear tests allow for minimal reuse of test questions and this greatly enhances test security."
Pretest and Research Sections
Questions in the unidentified pretest section are either being pretested for possible use in future tests or being used to ensure that scores on new editions of the test are comparable with scores on earlier test editions.
Some test takers may be presented with a clearly identified research section in place of the pretest section. The research questions are designed to help ETS researchers make improvements to the test in the future.
Section Order
The Analytical Writing Sections will always be first in the test. The Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning Sections and the pretest section may appear in any order following the Analytical Writing Sections. If a research section is included in the test, it will always be clearly identified and the last section. Directions at the beginning of each section specify the total number of questions in that particular section and the time allotted to answer them.
A Typical Revised GRE General Test
The chart below shows a typical revised GRE General Test:
| Section | Number of Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Analytical Writing | 1 "Present your Perspective on an Issue" task | 30 min. |
| Analytical Writing | 1 "Analyze an Argument" task | 30 min. |
| Verbal Reasoning (2 sections) |
Approximately 26-30 questions per section - 56 questions total | 40 min. per section |
| Quantitative Reasoning (2 sections) | Approximately 23-27 questions per section - 50 questions total | 40 min. per section |
| Pretest* | Varies | Varies |
| Research** | Varies | Varies |
*An unidentified pretest section that does not count toward a score may be included and may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing Sections.
**An identified research section that is not scored may be included and it will always be at the end of the test.